Officials of two local government units (LGUs) are claiming to have benefited after being initially selected as pilot areas in the European Chamber of Commerce of the Philippines (ECCP) Partnership for Integrity and Jobs (I4J) project.
Puerto Princesa City Mayor Lucilo Bayron and Oriental Mindoro Gov. Alfonso Umali said services to their constituents have improved, while companies have started looking at opportunities within their jurisdictions after initially becoming part of the project three years ago.
“We became closer to the private sector. We started seeing how they viewed the government. We were forced to sit down with them,” Bayron said.
According to Bayron, this has resulted in their city offering improved services, using best practices and being transparent.
For his part, Umali said being part of I4J has allowed for their province to reach ISO 9000 status and with them having improved governance.
“Corruption in our province has been minimized. We are now providing faster service and we now have easier processes in our operations. The COA [Commission on Audit] has seen that there are no shenanigans in our province,” Umali said.
While both Bayron and Umali said they have yet to be informed on how the project would evolve next year, both want the impact of I4J to be felt by other LGUs in the country.
“I want I4J to get bigger. People want change. It is the way to move forward,” Umali said, while adding that their province is now being used as a model by other LGUs on good governance.
Bayron agreed with the sentiments of Umali and said their city is also now being used as a model by other LGUs in the country.
“We want I4J to expand in cities and provinces. The project has to proceed,” Bayron said.
Puerto Princesa City and Oriental Mindoro was part of the initial group of nine municipalities, cities and provinces for I4J, which aimed to build a culture of integrity among LGUs in the country.
The other seven LGU pilot areas originally involved were Cebu, South Cotobato, Cagayan de Oro, San Carlos, Iranun Cluster, Naujan and Tuburan.
The nine pilot areas created a technical working group that drafted a customized set of integrity and business-promotion mechanism. Afterward, Integrity Circles were created, composed of civil servants, members of the business community, and non-governmental organizations.
Early last week the ECCP launched the Philippine Network of Local Government Integrity Circles, the continuation of I4J and a means to institutionalize the exchange of best practices they have started with the nine pilot areas.
Composed of a consortium that includes the Konrad-Adenauer-Stiftung e.V., Centrist Democracy Political Institute, League of Cities of the Philippines, League of Municipalities of the Philippines and League of Provinces of the Philippines, the project now counts 60 LGUs in its group.